Celebrities born on this present day: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 40; Jon Stewart, 62; Ed Harris, 74; Paul Shaffer, 75.

Happy Birthday: This 12 months, high-energy and emotional situations can collide when you don't adapt accordingly. Preparation and planning are key to getting things done and doing them your way. Don't let anyone trick you into doing something that can make you look bad or smash your likelihood of accomplishing what's essential. Think big, but only implement what your budget and your health can handle. Their numbers are 5, 11, 19, 24, 35, 43, 47.

Aries (March 21-April 19): Set high expectations and do the whole lot you’ll be able to to keep up the momentum needed to attain your goal. Where meetings, travel and learning play a job, opportunities arise. Get into the mainstream, network, push forward and promote your offering. Protect your health and repute. 3 stars

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Control your emotions. Regardless of the situation that’s unfolding, it’s best to face back and observe somewhat than taking a position that would place you in a gaggle that doesn’t represent your values ​​or long-term concerns. You may long for change, but only change what’s needed. 3 stars

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You will face temptations and uncertainty. Don't overreact or promise greater than you’ll be able to deliver. Remain calm, observe how others react, and check the facts before giving your time, skills, or money to someone or something that seeks your support or approval. When unsure, take a passport. 3 stars

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Follow the principles and avoid disagreements. Use your imagination coupled with facts to present your ideas a twist and attract like-minded people. Your courage and strength to keep up your beliefs and create positive change will cause controversy but will result in stability. Partnerships are preferred. 5 stars

LEO (July 23-August 22): Diversity, creativity and trusting your instincts will lead to vary. Not everyone will approve of or join your team, but those that do will encourage and encourage you to take the lead. Use your energy properly and make your mission one for all and all for one. 2 stars

VIRGO (August 23-September 22): Get comfortable and don't let one other person's persistence and manipulative nature dominate your attention and warp your pondering. Stick to what you recognize, listen to details, and do whatever is budget-friendly and promotes personal gain, physical improvement, and a positive consequence. Social and romantic events are preferred. 4 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You can't buy love or happiness. Expand your imagination and intelligence. Explore and express your thoughts and desires and use your charm and style to present what you would like and use incentives to draw practical help. A physical change in the way in which or where you reside looks promising. 3 stars

SCORPION (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Deep respiratory out and in. Now be realistic, see things as they’re and budget accordingly. Take a walk down memory lane and learn out of your experiences to guard yourself from a repeat. You may have the desire to make a change, but first you might want to implement a foolproof plan. Romance is preferred. 3 stars

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Set boundaries and limits before stepping into a three way partnership. Seek expert advice to avoid pitfalls. Domestic political change requires more validity and equality. Have another idea to counter any offer that comes your way. Trust your instincts, not what someone tells you. 3 stars

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19): Revisit what you’ve done and optimize your work to maximise the result. Your competence determines how others respond and who gives you permission to do what you would like. Network and surround yourself with the proper people and you’ll make an impact and a difference. 4 stars

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Turn up the quantity and kick it into high gear. Create a buzz and promote what you’ll be able to do and the changes you must make. Communication will elicit the assistance and response you would like and want to get things done. Redefine your space to fit your needs. 2 stars

PISCES (February 19-March 20): Be sure to ascertain the facts before sharing information or making a move. Protect your money and secrets and simplify your life by decluttering and selling what you now not need or use. Words matter, and when you persist with the reality, you won't find yourself in peril. 5 stars

Birthday Girl: You are insightful, well-connected and energetic. You are committed and independent.

1 star: avoid conflict; Work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can achieve something, but don't depend on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll achieve your goals. 4 stars: High goals; start latest projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; Get gold.

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Filmmaker Jon M. Chu has been instrumental in bringing not one, but two bundles of joy this month.

The first got here on November ninth, when the Palo Alto-born filmmaker and his wife Kristin Hodge welcomed daughter Stevie Sky to their enchanted kingdom; They now have 4 children.

The completely satisfied event coincided with the glittering Los Angeles premiere of certainly one of the most important movies of 2024, Chu's recent theatrical version of the beloved Broadway maroon “Wicked.”

When asked if welcoming a brand new daughter and directing certainly one of the most important Christmas movies means he's not getting much sleep in the meanwhile, the affable Chu jokes.

“I haven’t slept in about three years,” he said. “My wife is an angel. So life is full now and my heart is full. So they’re just blessings.”

Chu's Part 1 of “Wicked” (Part II is scheduled for release in November 2025) lasts so long as your complete stage production, but doesn't feel prefer it, and includes a diverse forged that features Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, the Outcasts, The Wicked Witch of the West is within the making, and pop star Ariana Grande is playing good Glinda (or Ga-linda, as she's quick to indicate). The two annoy one another as unlikely roommates at Shiz University's women's college, Cage Hall. The management lies with the headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). “Bridgerton” heartthrob Jonathan Bailey also plays the dashing Prince Fiyero Tigelaar, who captivates each of them.

Chu directed the phenomenally successful “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018 and later the swinging musical “In the Heights.” The latter, which was released in cinemas after the COVID-19 crisis, failed to attain the hoped-for box office success. “Wicked” experienced turbulence by itself flight to the large screen when the writers' strike halted production just before filming of the breathtaking number “Defying Gravity” that closes this film. Erivo sat on that song for six months after which belted it out, Chu said.

Chu all the time loved musicals and fell in love on the 2003 world premiere of “Wicked” on the Curran Theater in San Francisco. The 45-year-old fondly remembers coming to San Francisco together with his family to see ballet, opera and various musical productions. Chu's parents are beloved South Bay icons: Lawrence and Ruth Chu and run the famous Los Altos restaurant Chef Chu's.

Chu was keen about “Wicked” from the beginning.

“I feel very fortunate to have the purest patient-zero experience,” he recalls. “I didn't know what I was going to see, but I still remember being blown away by being mesmerized by the bubble, the little reference to the movie (The Wizard of Oz) really touching me has. ”

That's why it's somewhat mind-boggling for Chu, who also directed two “Step Up” dance movies, “GI Joe: Retaliation,” “Jem and the Holograms” and more, that he's been directing some film versions in 20 years , after seeing the musical with the family.

“It feels like fate,” he says.

His love of musicals was fostered while attending school within the South Bay.

“Our school (Pinewood in Los Altos) was very interested in theater,” he said. “I played Oliver. I was obsessed with The Phantom of the Opera. I had the pop-up book. I had the beach towel. I had the porcelain mask. I loved Joseph and the Fantastic Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

Chu's interest in filmmaking emerged within the mid-to-late Nineties with the appearance of digital video. A 13-14 yr old child found it most difficult to access the equipment.

The generosity of the regulars at his parents' restaurant got here to the rescue.

“People would come into the restaurant and give my dad equipment for me because they knew I was into video,” he remembers. “I was in the right place at the right moment and at the right time in a restaurant that is essentially a house of stories because everyone tells stories at all times.”

Having the camera in your hand proved to be a game-changer.

“I was the youngest of five, people kind of ignore you,” he said. “But with a camera in my hands, everyone was paying attention. They let me sit with them. Or they wanted to see what I was photographing. And looking into that lens was like putting on a mask. And the way they look at you is different. Maybe I've become addicted to it. … It took me a while to understand the power behind it.”

Chu remembers his immigrant parents singing songs from the 1939 original “The Wizard of Oz” in the home. The American dream “was very real in our household,” he said.

But when he left the Bay Area and started college, he found he “awakened to a different reality.” The stage musical “Wicked” brought his feelings to the forefront.

“Suddenly I walk into a store and people treat me differently,” he remembers. “I kind of grappled with the question: Is this how the world is? And this musical turned that idea of ​​the fairy tale on its head and said…in a very serious way, who decided what a villain should look like, who decided what a hero should look like.”

This stayed with him throughout the entire process of making the film. One of the most difficult aspects was casting the two female leads.

Erivo wowed her with her performance even when she walked in wearing jeans for the first time.

However, Chu was reluctant when he heard Grande was interested.

“I was like no way. Ariana Grande can't do that. No way.” But he agreed to see her.

“She comes in and is the most interesting person in the room,” he recalls. But he still wasn't entirely convinced she was right for the role. When he called back, he asked if she could “take off the Ariana Grande stuff.”

“She completely changed and was ready to go there,” he said. After a 3rd audition, she got the role.

“Wicked” Part II will probably be released on November 21, 2025, but Chu isn’t relaxing until then. He is developing a movie version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and is working on an animated musical by Dr. Seuss' “Oh, the Places You'll Go!” And then there's the musical “Crazy Rich Asians,” a possible sequel in development to this huge box office hit. And, oops, he was also hired to direct Britney Spears' memoir.

It could thoroughly turn into much more entertainment fun, and Chu is happy about it.

“Just no more kids,” he said, laughing.

Originally published: November 21, 2024 at 11:02 am PST

Palo Alto-raised director Jon M. Chu, whose film adaptation of “Wicked” might be one among the large box office hits of the 2024 Christmas season, has landed one other high-profile Hollywood contract: He is to develop and direct a feature film in regards to the lifetime of Britney Spears, based on her bestselling memoir “The Woman in Me.”

News of Chu's next big project got here Thursday via a report from industry newsletter The Ankler. Spears also shared news in regards to the “secret project.” on social media.

Universal Pictures acquired the rights to Spears' memoir after a hard-fought bidding war. Variety reported. Universal also produced “Wicked,” based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. “Wicked” is scheduled to hit theaters on Nov. 22, the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Spears' book has sold greater than 2.5 copies within the United States alone, Variety reported. The audiobook – read by Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Williams, with an introduction by Spears – was the fastest-selling in Simon & Schuster's history. The book traces her rise as a pop superstar and major cultural figure, from her days on the “Mickey Mouse Club” to her profession as a Grammy-winning solo artist. It also covers her highly publicized and scrutinized conservatorship case and delves into her difficult personal relationships together with her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake and together with her family, elements of which might be viewed as predatory, Variety also reported.

Chu is popping Spears' life story right into a film after recently releasing his own memoir, “Viewfinder.” In the book, he recounts his somewhat unconventional journey from Silicon Valley to Hollywood, where he became one among the industry's most sought-after directors following his hit 2018 romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Chu is the son of Lawrence and Ruth Chu, immigrants from China and Taiwan who own and operate the legendary Los Altos restaurant Chef Chu's. For a long time, Chef Chu's has been a hangout for Silicon Valley's elite, serving what critics call delicious yet progressive Chinese comfort food.

In a way, Chu followed his parents' tradition of serving up crowd favorites, as CBS noted in a recent interview with Chu. With Crazy Rich Asians, his eighth feature film, Chu also rewrote Hollywood's rules. Based on the best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan, his film was a critical and box office success. Unusually for Hollywood, the film also told a story that focused on Asians, and it was the primary mainstream American film in 25 years to feature a primarily Asian forged.

Chu, 44, grew up doing his homework or helping out at his family's restaurant, absorbing his parents' love of American popular culture in addition to the entrepreneurial spirit that was evident in a few of his parents' clients. He also got into producing home videos, starting with buying an audio/video mixer from a 1992 Sharper Image catalog, Chu said in an interview. this week with CBS.

In a 2018 interview with this news organization, Ruth Chu proudly showed off her son's student film awards from USC. She also laughed about being her own type of “tiger mom.” Instead of demanding that he and his 4 siblings develop into “lawyers, doctors, accountants,” she pushed them to pursue their passions. When teenage Jon tearfully told his parents he desired to make movies, Ruth Chu bought him a stack of books on film studies so he could learn how one can make it within the cutthroat world of Hollywood.

During his first decade within the industry, Chu was first discovered by Steven Spielberg after which built his repute by making concert movies for Justin Bieber and a number of other sequels, including “Step Up 2” and “GI Joe: Retaliation” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But Chu said his parents at all times encouraged him to make a movie about Chinese people, which led him to make “Crazy Rich Asians.”

Chu's follow-up to “Crazy Rich Asians” was the film adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical “In the Heights.” Now he's preparing to advertise “Wicked.” The film, which hits theaters on Nov. 22, is definitely the primary of two parts; “Wicked Part Two” is ready to hit theaters in November 2025.

The Broadway musical from which “Wicked” was adapted is itself based on the 1995 book “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by writer Gregory Maguire. That's what the Hollywood Reporter said. That project, in turn, was based on characters from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wizard of Oz, which were delivered to life within the Oscar-winning 1939 film musical The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy.

Originally published: August 1, 2024 at 16:22

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jon Gruden is asking the total Nevada Supreme Court to reconsider a three-judge panel's decision to dismiss a lawsuit he filed against the NFL over emails leaked to the media before he resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021.

Gruden's lawyers filed documents on Monday after the panel in a Decision of 14 May However, the league can take the civil case on contract interference and conspiracy charges out of state court and convey it before an arbitration panel that might be overseen by considered one of the defendants, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The same three judges at 1 July rejected, by the identical 2-1 margin, a motion by Gruden's lawyers for reconsideration was denied. Two judges said Gruden knew the NFL used arbitration to resolve disputes. The judge who dissented said it could be “outrageous” for Goodell to arbitrate a dispute by which he is called as a defendant.

An NFL spokesman declined to comment Tuesday, and attorneys for Gruden and the league didn’t reply to emails about Monday's court filing.

It was the most recent development in Gruden's lawsuit She alleges that Goodell and the league forced Gruden to resign from the Raiders by leaking emails containing racist, sexist and homophobic comments that Gruden sent about Goodell and other players within the NFL while working as a game analyst for ESPN.

Gruden was head coach of the Raiders when the team moved from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas in 2020. In his lawsuit, he seeks damages and claims the selective disclosure of the emails and their publication by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times ruined his profession and his endorsement deals.

Gruden was an NFL coach in Oakland and Tampa Bay from 1990 to 2008, where he led the Buccaneers to the Super Bowl title in 2003. He worked for several years as a TV commentator for ESPN before rejoining the Raiders in 2018.

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NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Originally published: July 31, 2024 at 5:46 am

LAS VEGAS – Jon Gruden lost an attempt by three Nevada Supreme Court judges on Monday to rule on whether a lawsuit he filed against the NFL over emails leaked to the media before his resignation as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders ought to be heard in court or in private arbitration.

Attorneys for Gruden, the league and an NFL spokesman didn’t reply to messages after a two-word order – “New hearing denied” – was posted on a court website. It was not immediately clear whether Gruden will request a hearing before the total, seven-member state Supreme Court.

Gruden's lawyers requested a brand new hearing after the three-judge panel reached a Decision of 14 May However, the league can take the civil case on contract interference and conspiracy charges out of state court and produce it before an arbitration panel that might be overseen by certainly one of the defendants, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Gruden's lawsuitThe lawsuit, filed in November 2021, alleges that Goodell and the league forced him to resign from the Raiders by leaking racist, sexist and homophobic emails he sent years earlier when he was at ESPN.

The two-judge majority said Gruden was aware that the NFL structure allows disputes to be resolved through arbitration, and it was not clear whether Goodell or a chosen outside arbitrator would hear Gruden's case.

Gruden was the Raiders' head coach when the team moved from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas in 2020. He left the team in November 2021 with greater than six seasons left on his record-breaking 10-year, $100 million contract.

The league appealed to the state’s highest court after a Las Vegas judge ruled in May 2022 that Gruden’s claim that the league intentionally only his documents could provide evidence of a ‘specific intention’ or an motion geared toward bringing about a specific result.

Gruden was at ESPN when the emails were sent to former Washington Commanders general manager Bruce Allen from 2011 to 2018. They were found amongst about 650,000 emails the league received as a part of an investigation into the Washington team's work culture.

Gruden is in search of damages, claiming that the selective disclosure of the emails and their publication by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times destroyed his profession and ruined promoting deals.

Gruden worked as a coach within the NFL from 1990 to 2008, including in Oakland and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whom he led to the Super Bowl title in 2003. He worked for several years as a TV commentator for ESPN before rejoining the Raiders in 2018.

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NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl